Working my children to the bone -- or, August at our house

August in the garden has kicked my butt, which is to say I have neither time or energy to write much these days. Let's just say I've killed my fair share of tomatoes. And just when I thought I was done, thought I couldn't bear one more basket of tomatoes looking me in the face every time I walked into the kitchen, I went to my favorite local farm stand and found that they were selling tomatoes for $14 a bushel. Do you have any idea how many tomatoes are in a bushel? I had to go home and google it before rushing back with cash in hand, then loaded 53lbs of tomatoes into the trunk of my car. I couldn't stop myself. I think I have a disease. I just have to say no to vegetables.

It has gotten that bad.

On the upside, we had our first day of "school" last week. We spent part of it at the river, part of it in the garden (you see, there are those tomatoes to deal with), and part of it at the art table. I had a momentary bout of panic when the school buses zoomed by our house each morning last week. We were still stretching and yawning into our pillows and thinking of blueberry pancakes. Its kind of odd, I tell you, when everyone else seems to be moving on to the next stage of life and here we are, still doing pretty much what we did the week before. I know that things will change for us as the season changes, when it is time to put in the garlic, carve and can the pumpkins and don heavier clothes. Still. I'm not entirely unruffled by it all, this sense of being removed from all the hubbub. I'm usually such a hubbub kind of girl.

On the up, upside, Oliver was recently evaluated by the public school system to determine his eligibility for special education -- a formality, really -- and I was so happy to learn that he is pretty much age level for the life skills portion of the evaluation. Needless to say, this was not the case at the age of three so I guess we are managing to do something right. The "something right" part is surely our focus on RDI, which encourages us to slow down and help Oliver (and Sami!!) to participate in just about everything that goes on around here. I swear that by now that boy could make the coffee and mix up the bread all on his own! Too bad that wasn't part of the test.

I have another post in mind about language -- how utterly rewarding real communication is!!! -- but I'll save that for another night when I don't have a bushel of tomatoes waiting for me.

In the meantime, I've got pictures to share.